My First Giri-Choco
by tentsubasa
Summary: In his second-to-last year of high school, Armin Arlert receives his first Valentine's Day chocolate ever, but there's something not quite right about it.


**It is waaaaay closer to White Day than Valentine's Day, but my laptop died, so oh well. This is a translation of a story that I found here: pixiv…net/novel/show…php?id=4910826. If you can read Japanese, please paste the link, otherwise, read on.**

**To make things easier, I'm going to have a short chocolate glossary and just use the names like they're technical terms because the translated names are just too weird.**

**Giri-choco = obligation chocolate; this is what women give to male family members, co-workers, etc., basically to men who have helped with something or other and they want to thank them**

**Honmei-choco = heart's desire chocolate; this is chocolate a woman gives a man she has feelings for**

**Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the way I translated the text.**

* * *

In all my seventeen years of living, I've never once received Valentine's Day chocolate. Well, no, that's slightly untrue. Every year Mikasa gives Eren and me chocolate. Simply put, until now, I've never gotten chocolate from anyone other than Mikasa. But that's obviously giri-choco. There isn't any really big difference between Eren's chocolate and mine, but somehow you can tell the difference in value or something? Just by looking at Eren's chocolate, you can tell it's special. Really, mine is almost like an afterthought. Not that I really _want_ it to be honmei-choco. I'm just grateful to receive any at all. But that's why I really can't understand my current situation: Annie came over to give me chocolate. If Krista came over and gave me some, then I'd just interpret it as her way of trying to be nice to a poor boy who doesn't ever get chocolate. But since it's Annie…I can't help but wonder if it's some sort of joke.

"Hey, do you not want it?"

Her words knocked me back to my senses. This is pretty elaborate for a prank, and Annie's not really the type to pull pranks anyway.

"Thank you. I'm grateful." With that, I took the chocolate from her.

The chocolate she gave me wasn't a standard shape. Now that I think of it, Reiner said before that Annie's _really_ bad at cooking. I remember thinking that it was too bad Annie's just a pretty face.

"Umm, Annie, this chocolate…."

"It's giri-choco."

!That was fast!

"I'm just gonna put this out there now, but you're not the only one I'm giving chocolate to. There are others, so don't get any weird ideas."

*sigh…* I should've known. It does kind of have that feel. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't gotten my hopes up, though….

"I'm going to go pass out the rest, so, later," she said as she left.

On my way home, I tried the chocolate Annie gave me. Since Reiner had said all that stuff about her cooking, I was kind of nervous about how it would taste, but it was good. I don't really like sweet things that much. Annie's chocolate was incredibly bitter; it was delicious.

The next day at school, everyone compared how many chocolates they'd gotten.

"Yo, Armin, how many people did you get chocolate from yesterday?"

I got chocolate from Mikasa, Annie, Krista, and Ymir. "Four people."

"Whaaat? Aw, man, you beat me. I got three chocolates," Eren said, sounding really vexed.

I beat Eren…? That's kind of weird. "Whom did you get chocolate from?"

"Hmm? Uh, just Mikasa, Krista, and Ymir."

"What?! What about Annie?" Annie said she was giving chocolate to other guys, didn't she? Why didn't Eren get some?

"Annie? She didn't give me anything. Does she even know how to _make_ chocolate?"

Eren didn't get any? Even though I did? After that, I asked a bunch of people if they'd gotten chocolate from Annie, but no one got any from her other than me. So I asked her to meet me after school.

"What's the big idea asking me to meet you here? If you want to give me something in return for the chocolate, just wait until White Day. Or did you have a problem with my chocolate or something?"

"Yesterday, you said you gave chocolate to other guys as well, didn't you?"

Annie looked a little surprised before immediately averting her eyes. "Yeah, what about it?"

"I asked the other guys whom they'd gotten chocolate from, but no one said your name." She stiffened. "You didn't give anyone but me anything, did you?"

Annie bit her lower lip. Is she going to cry? She gave a deep sigh and looked at me. "Even though you've figured that much out, you still don't get it?"

"Huh?" I replied stupidly.

"I would've thought you of all people would've figured it out. Usually, if I heard that you knew I hadn't given chocolate to any other guys, that'd mean you'd figured it out, I thought," she stated with a wry smile. "The whole point of Valentine's Day chocolate is _that_, isn't it?! Why don't you get it, hmm?"

"That"? What's she mean by "that"? Does Annie…? "Are you talking about…how you…like me?

She nodded sharply. Even though she was looking at the ground, her ears were bright red. I felt like I was dreaming. Annie likes me.

She suddenly burst out laughing. "Of course you're not interested in a girl like me. Sorry about this. Let's just forget this happened…."

"Wait!" I reflexively grabbed her arm to keep her from running away. She struggled against my grip enough to shake my arm a bit, but she wasn't really trying. "I haven't said I'm not interested yet." She kept staring at the ground. "If you really do like me, then I'm going to tell you how I feel as well."

Slowly, Annie raised her face to look at me.

"I like you. I have for a long time. I'm not lying. I really do like you."

When she heard that, she started crying. "_I have to protect her_," I thought to myself as I held her tight.

After that, Annie formally told me how she felt and asked me to go out with her. Of course, I agreed. I guess she told me that lie because she was embarrassed.

Turns out the giri-choco I received was actually my first ever honmei-choco, and through it, I found love.


End file.
